New Year's Eve London

31^st December 2011

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Angie and I had decided to spend New Year's Eve in London. We stayed at the Langham, which is a very nice hotel. There was a real gingerbread house in the main restaurant! We ate in Soho and made our way to Westminster Bridge, which is supposed to be the best viewing spot. We arrived about 9.15 only to discover that it was full and had been closed since just before 8pm. So we carried on past Parliament to Lambeth Bridge, where we managed to get a fairly good spot. As soon as we arrived, Angie realised that her purse had been stolen. We think it was while we were fighting our way through the crowds in Whitehall. Luckily we have the same credit cards, so she was able to get the numbers from mine and had cancelled all of them within about 20 minutes of the theft.

We waited until midnight. The weather was quite warm although it rained for a while whilst we were waiting. It cleared up by midnight. The atmosphere was fun on the bridge, everyone up for a good time. We couldn't hear the chimes of Big Ben, but suddenly everyone was counting down and the fireworks began. They lasted for about 11 minutes and were very good. Some spectaular sights. I didn't think that they were as good as I was expecting, although whether that was because of our location or the fact that we always have a good November 5^th display in Milton Keynes, I'm not sure. Either way, apart from the purse theft, we had a good time